Idearc Media announced today that it has acquired the URL Localsearch.com from AmericanTowns.com and has made an investment in AmericanTowns.com, a network of community-based Web sites. The deal totals US$3.3 million, plus “deferred purchase consideration.”

Idearc is clearly looking to spread its wings. As Eric Chandler, president — Internet, says in the deal announcement: “With the evolution of the Internet space from an Internet Yellow Pages model to a local search model, the value of the Localsearch.com URL is enhanced. This asset affords us the opportunity to develop a pure local search site through which we can further monetize our performance-based advertiser commitments in addition to Superpages.com.”

This is the third recent announcement from Idearc, all of them on enhancements to Superpages.com or extensions into new sources of distribution. On Tuesday, the company announced a new merchant comparison feature on Superpages.com and a new restaurant review application on Facebook.

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